Page 44 of Ruinous Need

LISETTE

“I DON’T THINK that’s right,” I frown at the way Viktor is kneading the piroshki dough.

“You do it, then.” He steps back from the bench, his hands covered in flour. He’s somehow got it on his cheek as well.

“You’re the Russian. And besides, I am a fragile damsel who can’t knead for too long without needing a nap.”

The post-hypothermia symptoms are still making me tired at random times.

Besides, I like this domestic Viktor. His taut arm muscles flex as he kneads the dough, his hands firm yet rough.

Hot. Maybe I’m making him do this just so I can ogle his arms.

I’ve forced him to take some time off from scheming over Bratva and Mafia relations to help me with dinner. My family are visiting us for the first time, so we’ve decided to attempt Russian cuisine.

Viktor complains about cooking. Which is ridiculous for a thirty-five-year-old man who has existed alone in the world for a long time.

It’s because he grew up with staff. Well, he still does have staff.

They’re giving us major side-eye right now as we make piroshkis wrong and ignore their advice, but — as I’ve explained many times — we’ll learn nothing unless we try it ourselves.

Our baby, I’ve decided, is going to receive cooking lessons.

Viktor frowns as he kneads the dough, his tattooed hands working the mixture until it’s smooth.

“Perfect.” I smile at him and kiss the spot of flour from his cheek, bumping him out of the way with my hip. “Now this bit, I can do.”

He settles against the kitchen island and watches me fold the meat inside the dough. His hand lingers against my hip.

“What’s wrong?” I say when I see his frown.

His dark eyes are stormy. I don’t know how he operates in the organized crime world when his emotions are always this obvious.

“I still don’t know who betrayed us, at the safe house.” His brow creases in thought.

“Are you serious?” I splutter and stop my folding. “How long have you been wondering this? I know who betrayed us.”

Viktor’s jaw drops open, and he looks at me accusingly, like I’ve been keeping a secret from him.

“Don’t give me that look. You never asked me.”

“Who was it?”

I raise a finger to my chin in thought. “Maybe I shouldn’t tell you. Maybe this is a sign that your wife should be kept in the loop with serious mafia business more often.”

He growls at that, pushing me back against the fridge. “What if I promise to keep you in the loop more?”

“ If you promise to keep me in the loop more, I might tell you.”

“Then I promise.”

I take a deep breath. I don’t think I would have been able to keep this secret anyway. Viktor can be convincing, especially when we’re in bed.

“It was Daria. She was on Semyon’s side the entire time, feeding him information about you. It’s why the security threats got so bad. The extra security was a security threat.”

His eyes widen. He rakes a hand through his hair. “I thought she hated Semyon.”

“She hated him, but she was also deeply in love with him.”

“Terrible taste.” His mouth quirks up at the edge.

“I know.” I shudder. “I liked her. Maybe I’m a bad judge of character.”

He snorts at that. “You’re not a bad judge of character. You’re not a judge of character at all. You like everyone.”

“Not true,” I pout.

“Name one person you don’t like.”

“Semyon?”

“Sure, the man who bought you and ruined your life for years. Shocker. Anyone else?”

I drop my hands to the dough and focus on folding another piroshki, my stomach turning with guilt. “Sometimes my father. I just wish he had fought for me more, you know. I didn’t even know that was something I was allowed to want, until you showed me.”

He cups my face and traces his thumb over my cheek. “Of course. You were eighteen and terrified. If you resent him for that, you have nothing to be ashamed of.”

“I can’t realistically expect everyone I love to kill multiple men for me.”

“We all have a different love language. I think that one’s just mine.”

Just before we open the door to welcome my family to our slightly-burnt piroshki dinner, Viktor announces he has a surprise for me. And then, infuriatingly, won’t explain what it is.

The anticipation successfully distracts me from my nerves.

Let’s just say my parents were not thrilled to learn I was marrying the man who’d killed someone in a church in front of them just an hour earlier… Even if he did put an end to the man who’d made all of our lives a misery for three years.

It took a lot of wrangling to get them here.

My dad takes me aside at one point. “You know, you have other options, Lisette. If you need any help, just let us know.”

I’m pretty sure they think this is another blackmail situation. But it warms my heart to see him trying to protect me, even if he is three-and-a-half years too late.

“Thanks Dad.” I pull him in for a hug. “But don’t worry about me. There’s no gun to my head anymore.”

He still looks dubious throughout the dinner, but Mom beams when she sees the way I look at Viktor.She had been concerned that he was too old for me, but I think she’s really starting to believe we’re in love.

Sammy didn’t see what happened at the wedding, sheltering with Mom under the pew, although he did see the aftermath and hear the screaming.

He’s mostly impressed by Viktor’s fortress-like house and collection of war-themed boardgames. He smokes us all in a game of Risk, his face lighting up when he achieves world domination.

When it’s over, and Viktor and I are alone again, I do feel some relief. The pressure of explaining my life choices to my parents is over, at least for now.

He leads me upstairs to uncover the surprise.

“Um… Did the contractors make a mistake?” I ask when I see what he’s done to our bedroom.

“A mistake? I don’t think so.” He quirks an eyebrow and lies back on the bed.

“There’s a pole here. You hate it when I pole dance.”

“I hate it when you pole dance… in front of other people.”

“Oh, so you think this renovation means you get a private show?”

He smirks. Cocky asshole. “Yes. Because if I get a private show, you get a reward.”

My teasing giggle catches in my throat at the smoldering heat in his eyes. “Someone has kept me away from my fitness classes for such a long time that maybe I’ve forgotten how to do it.” I can’t resist sliding my hand down the pole to test it out.

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out. If you’re a good girl and you do this for me, maybe we can talk about the classes again.”

“Maybe? I know how deals with the Bratva work. I need more of an assurance than that.”

Viktor’s mouth twitches. I’m being impertinent and I know he’s itching to punish me for it.

“Fine. Definitely. If you dance for me, we can have a conversation.”

“Fine.” I twirl around the pole with a one-handed lift to test it out. Viktor follows me with those smoldering eyes and I can’t wait to blow his mind with this pole.

He fists his cock as he watches me, his mouth falling open.

I thought maybe something would change when I got pregnant. That Viktor wouldn’t love my body anymore.

Somehow I think he likes it even more. He likes the evidence that I’m his, there for everyone to see in my growing baby bump.

And God, do I crave him more than ever. When he goes out to work, I feel a pang as soon as he leaves the house.

When I’m done dancing, he doesn’t hesitate. His belt is already in his hand and he straps my hands around the pole.

He slaps my ass and the familiar burn comes back to me. I let out a moan, my pussy starting to drip.

“Do you remember the first time I tasted you, just like this?”

My face flames. “I couldn’t forget that.”

“Do you remember what you promised?” His voice is strained as he brings another blow down on my ass. I let out a yelp.

“That I’d let you fuck my ass.”

“That’s right, little screamer. Tonight, you’re going to scream the whole house down when I stuff my cock in that virgin hole.”

I gasp as he shoves his thumb inside me, roughly spreading the wetness from my pussy to my ass. We’ve been working up to this, with a set of jeweled plugs he puts in every morning to slowly relax my asshole. Every time they’re in, I get unreasonably wet, until I beg Viktor to fuck my pussy.

But I didn’t think it would be tonight.

“Are you sure I’m ready?” I can’t stop my voice from trembling.

I can hear Viktor still touching himself as he fucks his thumb in and out of me, gripping the leather belt. “More than ready. That pretty asshole is begging to be fucked.”

He positions his cock behind me and I lean my weight forward against the pole.

A whine breaks forth as he stuffs his cock inside me.

He’s throbbing hard, his hands gripping my ass as he eases in until it feels like I can’t take anymore. Then he keeps going.

“It’s too much. There’s no way you can fit.”

“What if I do this?” He wraps one hand around my throat and brings the other to tease my clit. My pussy aches to be filled but the arousal makes my ass relax.

“Oh God, okay.” I squirm against him, finally feeling the pleasure of his cock ruining my ass.

“Your pussy feels so good around my cock when I choke you,” he rasps against my neck as he embeds his cock in me deeper. “I wanted to see if it was the same with your ass.”

He squeezes my neck, rubbing my clit in quick circles, and I come apart.

“Oh fuck. That’s it, Lisette.” He thrusts into my ass again while I come with a hoarse scream. Only his hands on my clit and my throat are holding me upright.

The strangled moan he makes when he finishes in my ass makes it all worth it. He buries his teeth in my shoulder, sucking at my skin and panting against me as my asshole strangles his cock.

“We’re going to have to do this more often.”

I gasp for air when he releases my throat and he pulls out of me slowly, the warm rush of his cum dripping out of my asshole.

Viktor bends down to look as his load seeps out of me, taking his time to inspect the way it drips along my pussy.

He rubs the cum into my asshole and pushes a plug in to hold it in place, before digging his fingers into my asscheeks.

That can’t have lasted more than two minutes but it was one of the most intense experiences of my life.

“Maybe that soaked cunt needs a load of cum too.” He arches his brow devilishly, unbelts my hands, and throws me onto the bed.